Disclosed herein is a method for method and apparatus for feeding media sheets in an image production device, as well as corresponding apparatus and computer-readable medium.
In image production devices where sheets are fed from a media stack, it is important to attain consistent separation of the top media sheet from the rest of the media stack, especially media sheets of larger length. This is especially important in vacuum corrugation feeding due to the lower acquisition forces available.
If the top media sheet is not fully separated due to edge welds (sheets sticking together at the edges from the shearing operation at the mill), or other contact issues caused by ambient conditions and interactions with the paper coatings, the feed head may not acquire the sheet properly and this may lead to several failure conditions. These issues generally result in multi-feeds, such as when 2 or more media sheets are acquired and fed as a single media sheet, or mis-feeds, such as when a media sheet is not acquired within the necessary time to match the system pitch timing.
In an attempt to separate the top media sheets at the trailing edge of the media stack conventional image production devices use “fluffers” to force air into the media stack. The theory of fluffing up the trail edge of the stack is based on the idea that when the top media sheet is being acquired by the feed head the resistance at the trail edge of the media sheet can be reduced by forcing air into the trail edge of the media stack.
However, the air being forced into the media stack cannot be directed accurately enough to always separate the top media sheet. The fluffer forces air to a subset of media sheets at the top of the media stack and does not always focus on the separation of the top media sheet.